Technical Field
The present invention relates to rotation mechanisms capable of causing rotation of a second member relative to a first member.
Background Art
Some products in the market place use a case assembly having a case with an opening formed therein and a lid which covers the opening. An example of such case assembly is a combination of a handheld case for transferrable correction tape and a closure for the case. Similar structures are widely used for transferable products of, for example, adhesive tape, double-sided tape, and decoration tape.
In such cases, the lid can usually take two positions: a position to cover the opening in the case and a position to expose the opening in the case. When using a correction tape, the closure is positioned at the position to expose the opening in the case. When the correction tape is not used, the closure is positioned at the position to cover the opening in the case.
Movement of closures of the type described may be rotation about an axis. Typical case assemblies use a combination of shaft rods and bearings to achieve such rotation in which, for example, the shaft rods are provided on the case and the bearings for receiving the respective shaft rods are formed in the closure, or vise versa.
Rotation of the closure relative to the case as described above is often made by a user by rotating the closure relative to the case with his or her hand.
On the other hand, rotation mechanisms capable of rotating a closure relative to a case almost automatically or via a single action of a user merely by using operation means (such as a button or a lever) are also known. Such rotation mechanisms, however, typically have a relatively large number of components or parts, which tends to increase costs. In addition, it is often difficult to mount such a rotation mechanism onto small items such as applicators for correction tape.
These problems associated with the rotation mechanisms are not inherent to case assemblies having a case and a lid used for items such as correction tape. Instead, similar problems are present more generally in rotation mechanisms for rotating a second member of a kind relative to a first member of another kind.
An object of the present invention is to provide a novel rotation mechanism having a smaller number of components or parts.